Recreation in Eorzea?

[Jzarah]

I was just wondering, are there any official records (or at the very least, widely accepted by the roleplaying community) of what people get up to during their downtime? Any card/board/dice games, any popular sports, anything? Or is Eorzea devoid of anything but drinking your cares away and/or going to the Gold Saucer?

[Canadane]

There's always the prostitutes.

[Cleretic]

I was just wondering, are there any official records (or at the very least, widely accepted by the roleplaying community) of what people get up to during their downtime? Any card/board/dice games, any popular sports, anything? Or is Eorzea devoid of anything but drinking your cares away and/or going to the Gold Saucer?

Okay, so here's what I've got, because I actually have looked into this. Looking overall at the Source rather than specifically on Eorzea, because there's some interesting things further afield:

• There is chocobo racing, mainly showcased in the Golden Saucer but there's evidence of chocobo racing elsewhere. Lord of Verminion, sadly, does not seem to have the same reach.
• Triple Triad has spread worldwide (and further, thanks Crystal Exarch), with people playing it in and from every nation we've been to. Personally I'd like to know its international card distribution methods, but that's me being a nerd.
• Naturally, bloodsports are a thing; you've got the gladiatorial pits and the Masked Carnivale in Ul'Dah, and from what lore we've got Crystal Conflict is seen as some kind of sport.
• Thavnair of course has hippo chariot racing!
• Ishgard has a local ball sport, mentioned like, once. Basically all we know is its name, and even that I don't know off the top of my head.
• While somewhat speculative, the fact that the Limsan government is determined by boat race says that there has to be a boat racing circuit around La Noscea as well, even if we haven't seen it.
• Dipping into a more historic view, an Azys Lla fish description tells us that Allag had their own variant of pigeon shooting.

In terms of less codified recreation, we've seen children playing plenty, although they probably aren't sticking to a codified ruleset. And if you count watching theater, musicians and dancers, they've definitely got that, as well as entertainment-minded literature.

[Iscah]

the Limsan government

I just want to go off on a tangent about names here – while the city is called Limsa for short, the adjective is "Lominsan".

[Enkidoh]

I just want to go off on a tangent about names here – while the city is called Limsa for short, the adjective is "Lominsan".

Well, 1.0 actually used both in equal measure, so it came across as more a "whatever you feel more comfortable with" thing (not surprising given it's a pirate nation notirous for doing "their own thing"). ARR of course changed that, but I'm stubborn and continue to use "Limsan" as it's what I got used to using playing 1.0.

Ahem..

On topic, there are definetely many types of games played in Eorzea, Triple Triad being the obvious one, but there are more obscure ones, many of which are playable via the Toy Box accessory in Inn Rooms and in personal/FC housing.

One particularly interesting example is Parley, a tile based game that although despite what stupid Hildibrand would have you believe, was not a Manderville family creation and actually predated the Seventh Calamity, and was once used as a form of negotiation by merchants and traders in business deals ("playing the tiles" was the term). It was particularly useful for dealing with the beast tribes who, as a general rule, spoke in languages that to lay merchants were difficult to understand. Parley was thus a simple but effective way of overcoming that (of course, those with the Echo could skip that and just ask directly).

The tribe language thing was mostly ignored in ARR though and Parley disappeared from the story, being brought back in the Hildibrand quests, but that was it's real origin.

The Toy Box also has a number of other games with no real lore behind them - even Blackjack is shown to exist (although in that particular case, might be a reference to the version included in FFIX as an easter egg), only Parley was the one that seemed to have any lore explanation.

I'm sure there's probably dice halls as well.

There is - the Platinum Mirage casino in Ul'dah has been around since 1.0, with the PGL's Guild traditonally serving as their hired thugs who notriously collect on gamblers who don't pay up (among other things), and has been offlimits to everyone except the elite of Ul'dah (read: plutocrats like Lolorito) even before the Calamity.

The Lodestone description of Ul'dah also makes mention of "gambling dens", but the Platinum Mirage is the only one specifically mentioned in the actual game to my knowledge, so smallfolk probably have to be satisfied with simply playing games out in the street or rattling die on a table in the Adventurer's Guild (funnily enough, dice seems to be the one game not available in the Gold Saucer - most likely to avoid real-life issues with countries that have restrictions on depictions of actual real gambling games like dice.

[Cleretic]

• Ishgard has a local ball sport, mentioned like, once. Basically all we know is its name, and even that I don't know off the top of my head.

An important update, because I've found more information on this sport, and it's WAY better than I remembered. It turns out this is from a levequest!

The sport in question is spineball; it's essentially a very simple game like soccer, where players compete to get the ball into one of two baskets using only their feet. The catch: the ball in question is a spiky lake urchin. No alterations are done to make this more safe or aerodynamic.

Yes, this is absurdly stupid. That's part of its appeal, though; it's a sport devised by bored soldiers, watching people get hurt in a safe context is just another part of the fun.

Which means that, yes, Ishgard invented Jackass.

[SannaR]

An important update, because I've found more information on this sport, and it's WAY better than I remembered. It turns out this is from a levequest!

The sport in question is spineball; it's essentially a very simple game like soccer, where players compete to get the ball into one of two baskets using only their feet. The catch: the ball in question is a spiky lake urchin. No alterations are done to make this more safe or aerodynamic.

Yes, this is absurdly stupid. That's part of its appeal, though; it's a sport devised by bored soldiers, watching people get hurt in a safe context is just another part of the fun.

Which means that, yes, Ishgard invented Jackass.

I'm sorry but what? Why would you think playing something like soccer with a spikey hacky sack would be good fun? Was this before the war or during?

[Cleretic]

I'm sorry but what? Why would you think playing something like soccer with a spikey hacky sack would be good fun? Was this before the war or during?

It's a levequest, so we can reason at least during the war, probably also after.

I can't claim that the inventors of said sport were smart, and the person requesting the levequest certainly doesn't think they are either. I recommend reading some of the Heavensward levequests for that reason, it's a great mixture of windows into how the Temple Knights interact with the populace and their administration boggling vacantly at the insane requests handed down to them.

[SannaR]

According to the 1st EE people have used the deck of sixty as playing cards all the way back to the 3rd Astral Era. Either for gambling or disport. Some popular games using the deck are: Hide the High Heart- A fast paced high-low hybrid, Knight and Knaves- A three player strategy game in which each card represents a member of an army unit. The object being to assassinate the opposing armies generals, Louis Louis- A game in which the object is to create a stack of cards whose sum equals the age of Archon Louisoix when he sacrificed his life for the relm. The delt hands that are exchanged by players every round makes this particular contest one of extreme concentration. And The Whispering Pillow- A unique game popular amongst nobleborn, eighteen face cards are drawn from the minor deck and assigned a person within the players' social circles. The arcana are then drawn in pairs to see who is "in bed with" or who is betraying whom, providing the genteel with seeds of wild gossip for their afternoon tea sessions.

I'm sure there's probably dice halls as well.

[Jzarah]

Somehow I'd completely forgotten about Triple Triad. Somehow. Interesting to hear about the other sources of entertainment, though it is a smidge frustrating that some of them are dubiously canon at best.